King Charles due in Caribbean as slavery apology calls intensify

King Charles is due to arrive in the Bahamas in the coming hours to begin a nine-day tour of the Caribbean. The trip will also take in Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, where the King will attend the Commonwealth heads of government meeting. The Queen and the Prime Minister are also expected in the region for the gathering. The visit is meant to be a standard royal tour and Commonwealth set piece, but it is being overshadowed by calls for an apology and reparations for slavery.

Buckingham Palace has made clear that the King will not make a formal apology on the tour. He is following government advice. The UK government's position is that Britain cannot apologise for, or be held financially liable for, events that were not illegal at the time they took place. Ministers say the UK does not and will not pay reparations. The King is expected to express deep sorrow and regret, using language he has used before about the 'darkest days of our past' and slavery as an 'appalling atrocity' that 'forever stains our history'. The palace sees an apology as a matter for government, not the monarch.

In Guyana, President Irfaan Ali has said slavery was the darkest days of human history. He said recognition is a first step and an apology is the next. He argued that Britain benefited immensely and should agree reparations, rejecting claims that the UK cannot afford them by saying Britain did not consider such costs when it was enslaving people. Campaigners have made similar demands, describing multi-generational trauma and calling for investment in Caribbean education and health care. A 94-year-old former sugarcane worker, Rudolf Edwards, described brutal conditions but said he holds no hostility toward the British or the King. Campaigner Eric Phillips said Britain should acknowledge its crimes. Guyana is Britain's only former colony on the South American mainland, and sites there include a former slave market and a parade ground where a slave rebellion was crushed.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Shirley Botchwey, said the time has come for a conversation about reparations and that an apology from the King would not hurt. She said the form of reparations is for countries to decide. Possible routes include: - financial payments - reparations in kind - concessional financing and debt treatment - climate measures and the return of artifacts The UK government responded that the transatlantic slave trade was abhorrent and that it recognises its impacts, but said its position on not paying reparations is clear.

At the last Commonwealth summit in 2024, leaders said it was time for a meaningful conversation about reparations. The King said then that none of us can change the past but urged learning its lessons and addressing inequalities that endure. Recent royal tours have been difficult. The Prince and Princess of Wales were criticised in 2022 over a Caribbean trip seen as tone deaf, including a photograph on a Land Rover. Jamaica's prime minister said then 'we are moving on', although Jamaica kept the King as head of state. Barbados became a republic but stayed in the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is a voluntary group of 56 countries, and the debate over colonialism and reparations is likely to continue in Antigua.

The UK paid £20 million to slave owners after abolition, a debt only finished in 2015. Campaigners say that shows reparations are not only a distant issue. Critics of reparations say the King should not apologise for events before his reign, that the cost would fall on current taxpayers, and that the focus should be on modern slavery and racial equality. Supporters say an apology without any acknowledgment of cost is not a real apology. The King's tour will be watched for protests and for how he handles the demands without breaching government policy.